Cool v. Numb

Sir: Your article should read "The Numbing of America" [Feb. 22]--we are in deep shock. There is nothing cool in either sense of the word about how many of us feel. Anyone with sensitivity will read the silence with terror: suffering people, stricken people do not remain silent for long.

JUDITH KUMM Arlington, Texas

Sir: America has not cooled. The frustrations of a nonresponsive political body are just beginning to reach a greater depth. In the '60s, it was youth that felt it --its reaction was violence.

Now the Silent Majority is feeling the frustrations, and their reaction seems to be inaction and disbelief.

America has not cooled down--it is seething and searching, but way down deep now, in the area that reporters and journalists don't see. We need gut answers, not a rehash of what the far-out few are doing about "cooling it." Where do we get them?

(MRS.) VERONICA KUROSKI New Rochelle, N.Y.

Sir: The counterculture in throwaway America is not dead, dying or extinct. It is undergoing a rebirth, starting over again from its internal, self-generating life force: a rebirth, going over our history, finding out where we went wrong. New people will arise to solve the problems of the second generation of the revolution. The cosmic lid is back on the pressure cooker.

WILLIAM BEENEY Hamilton, N.Y.

Sir: You say: "Americans have the vanity of thinking the U.S. must be either the best country or the worst country."

Without vanity, but with curiosity, I would like to ask, where is there a better one?

(MRS.) JEANNE G. FRAAS Knoxville, Tenn.

Sir: The young idealists appear stunned by the realization that despite the sales enthusiasm, their products would not stand close scrutiny under a good light. When the radical left philosophy is lifted out of the illicit bomb factories and away from mob delirium, the blemishes and pimples stand out.

The young will learn that if one preaches philosophical hygienics, one must have clean fingernails.

FRANK POWELL San Diego

Sir: "The Cooling of America" raised hopes in my expatriate circles. Maybe, we thought, the dawn was breaking for true involvement, for serious discussion, for an end to sloganeering. But there remains this deep dilemma: while the country cools in a political sense, it continues running hot in the sphere of personal safety. We are disheartened by the cold facts that show crime rates climbing up and up, as unstoppable as the worst type of cancer. It is hopeless, hopeless, hopeless!

RAYMOND CARTER Madrid

Sir: The special section, "The Cooling of America," provides an excellent insight into the mood and thinking of today. It takes a special talent to look at present-day happenings and give such objective reasoning and analysis. Let us hope that this present feeling is the lull before something good and not just a pause before something bad.

PAUL WATERS Jefferson City, Mo.

Sir: Things seem to be looking up. You've given me a ray of hope to penetrate my black doubts. Is it that America is approaching a new season?

KAREN RUESTER Kalamazoo, Mich.

Fighting the Elements

Sir: Your article "The U.S. v. Construction Workers" [Feb. 15] was rather one-sided to say the least. You neglected to take into consideration the fact that construction workers do not have paid vacations; nor do they work when it rains, when it snows, or when it's too cold to pour cement.

My hat is off to these men, who will risk their lives and fight the elements in order to erect buildings so that some fat slob can sit on his rear all day in his plush air-conditioned office and earn a guaranteed 40 hours a week.

HELEN MULRY Salem, Mass.

Sir: The construction unions' economic stranglehold on building in the United States is obviously not going to be moderated by the unions themselves. To overcome union monopolistic powers exerted via their too-well-known restrictions and "tortuous apprenticeship training," it is proposed that the states 1) beef up training programs in the building trades and 2) institute biannual examinations in each trade to certify as competent all who pass such exams. No state-certified man could be excluded from union membership if he elects to join.

G.E. KIDDER SMITH Manhattan

As Christian as Christians

Sir: Are Christian missions livelier than before? Hardly. The report "Missionaries: Christ for a Changing World" [Feb. 22] is one-sided. While pointing out dramatic increases of Christians in Latin America and in a few parts of Asia, you neglect Japan, where there has been no substantial increase in the past 20 years.

I believe that the missionary era is fast coming to an end. One need not panic, however, unless one still entertains the self-righteous conviction that poor native pagans, who roam in darkness, must be led to the light of Christianity (and of Western civilization).

As far as I know, the pagans are as Christian (or unChristian) as the Christians in their spirit and behavior.

Yo A. KUBO Philadelphia

Sir: You remark that conservative Protestant missionaries cling to a conviction that sets them apart from liberal Protestants and most Catholics: the belief that faith in Jesus Christ is necessary for salvation. Then you add: "But their numbers grow while liberal Christians report a decline in missionary recruits as well as membership."

Could it be, by any chance, that the liberals have forgotten, as the conservatives have not, that you can't fight something with nothing?

(THE REV.) FRANCIS CANAVAN, S.J.

Fordham University

The Bronx

Innocent Power

Sir: Concerning Philip Wylie's "Sons and Daughters of Mom" [Feb. 15], I would agree that any man who would propose raising the voting age to 30 is indeed more interesting than I at first thought.

However, it is not the age he quotes that fascinates me, but rather the entire farfetchedness of the idea. Perhaps we should lower the voting age to two and then reclaim even that right at the vulnerable age of twelve--ten years of honest, innocent power combined with a natural enthusiasm for being alive.

JOHN J. RAGER Ottawa

Sir: Philip Wylie's ability lay in merely bringing the age-old practice of scapegoating back to where it began: "She did it, Lord." In'an age grown too complex for analysis, in which it was no longer "sophisticated" or "intellectual" to blame society's problems upon Jews, Spics, Wops, niggers, Japs, Commies, etc., etc., he was able to cash in on that one essential "bad guy": the creature that dared give birth to the whole mess--mother.

COLETA R. McNAMARA Wichita, Kans.

Standing on the Record

Sir: Your article "Allende's Hundred Days" [Feb. 22] omitted the most important of all conclusions: President Salvador Allende has acted and is acting within the constitution and the law.

Civil liberties, freedom of speech and movement, and freedom of the press have not been curtailed. President Allende has repeatedly stated that he will act and implement his programs within the constitution and legal system. Standing on his record as an honest politician and senator, respectful of Chile's democratic institutions, President Allende deserves to be believed.

WALTER E. SAHR Cedar Rapids, Iowa

Sir: Before you begin a "canonization" ritual of "Savior" Allende, please bear in mind that Mussolini, Hitler, Jimenez, Castro and Papa Duvalier all began in the same phony manner. First, treat your subjects with plenty of tender loving care, win their gullible confidence, then slowly but surely apply the inevitable pressures of cruel, totalitarian dictatorship.

KIBBY NIYEE Millwood, N.Y.

Soldiers and Children

Sir: I was struck by the question of a British soldier in your article on Northern Ireland [Feb. 22], when he asked, after being bombarded with bottles and even bombs by Irish children, "How do you arrest a ten-year-old? How do you hit him back?"

Once we would have said that that would be the typical reaction of most soldiers, and most assuredly of soldiers of the U.S. But no more.

At the trial of William Galley, we hear that the killings at My Lai were justified, but in our hearts we will always know that there is no justification for killing two-year-olds pointblank, be they ally or enemy.

(MRS.) FLORENCE LESH New Brighton, Minn.

Shadow and Substance

Sir: Your article, "Welfare: Trying to End the Nightmare" [Feb. 8], is an important contribution to better comprehension of this country's much misunderstood and frequently denounced system of public welfare.

A general failure to appreciate the complexities of this system, I am convinced, is a major roadblock to the President's goal of welfare reform. Your article dramatically portrays the shadow and substance of the many myths that plague welfare recipients and should help lay some of them to rest. It also highlights a number of the difficulties faced by those who administer the present inadequate system at the federal, state and local levels.

We appreciate your contribution to public understanding of the tragedy of the present welfare system and the urgent need for a constructive solution.

ELLIOT RICHARDSON, Secretary

Department of Health, Education and Welfare

Washington, D.C.

Special Affection

Sir: Like many other interested photographers, I am sure the shock of losing Larry Burrows [Feb. 22] will linger for some time to come. He was an extraordinary person who, in addition to being an outstanding photographer and journalist, must have had a very special affection for those he photographed, coupled with a distinct awareness of the basic human elements involved in this war.

JON R. MULFORD Wilmette, Ill.

Sir: I was inspired by Burrows and his photography, by his feelings about the war and the human suffering caused by this most misunderstood conflict in Southeast Asia. He was a man of great dedication and talent. I feel that the only fitting memorial to this fine man is his work, which I hope will be preserved so that other generations can witness the product of man's hate and, if you will, vanity. Burrows was among those who can be called "rare" in their fields.

THOMAS E. NELSON Indianapolis

Mended Heart

Sir: When I appeared in the earlier version of Wuthering Heights, Laurence Olivier's Heathcliff rejected me, and my heart was broken. Now, thanks to the photograph TIME ran with its review of the new Wuthering Heights [March 1], my heart is mended. You show Geraldine Fitzgerald's Isabella with Olivier, not Merle Oberon's Cathy, as you identified her in your caption.

GERALDINE FITZGERALD Manhattan

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